Tour of the Alps: Sivakov wins stage 2

Image 1 of 19

Pavel Sivakov (Team Sky) claimed the first victory of his professional career when he overcame Jan Hirt (Astana) to win stage 2 of the Tour of the Alps at Schenna. The Russian inherits the overall lead from his teammate Tao Geoghegan Hart, who had himself helped himself to his first professional win on the opening stage.

Sivakov was part of a group of eight riders that forged clear on the mist-shrouded descent of Monte Giove after the mountain pass had already whittled the group of favourites down to fewer than 20 riders.

They carried a buffer of almost 40 seconds into the short finishing ascent at Schenna, where Fausto Masnada (Androni-Sidermec) ignited the attacking when he accelerated with 3.5km to go. Sivakov promptly responded in kind and initially looked to have established a winning margin when he pressed clear alone.

Hirt showed considerable strength to inch his way back up to Sivakov with 1.7km remaining, before the road briefly flattened out. Once the gradient reared up again in the final kilometre, however, Sivakov’s strength finally told, and he kicked his way clear of Hirt with 400 metres to go to win by 4 seconds.

Mattia Cattaneo came home in third, just ahead of his Androni teammate Masnada. In the overall standings, Sivakov carries an eight-second lead over Hirt into stage 3, while Cattaneo lies third at 33 seconds.

"We could not wish for a better start to the race: two stages in two wins, it's unbelievable," Sivakov said afterwards. "Yesterday Tao had his first pro win and today, I've gone mine."

Geoghegan Hart served as something of a decoy for Sivakov when the winning move ghosted clear on the long descent off Monte Give, and the Briton began the final haul towards Schenna in a chasing group that included Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe).

Nibali again highlighted his pre-Giro d'Italia form with a sharp attack on the final ascent that only Majka could follow, but the Sicilian had left himself with too much ground to recoup, and he had to settle for 7th on the stage, 30 seconds down on Sivakov. Geoghegan Hart rode well to limit his losses, coming in a further 13 seconds back in 8th.

It was a more trying afternoon for Sivakov and Geoghegan Hart's teammate Chris Froome. Although he remained in contact with the favourites on Monte Giovo, he lost contact over the summit and crossed the finish line 1:36 down.

How it unfolded

Stage 2 of the Tour of the Alps brought the race from Austria to Italy by way of the Brenner Pass, though the day's main obstacle was the mighty Monte Giovo, which brought the race up snow-banked roads and through low-cloud to an altitude of 2094 metres. There was no shortage of riders eager to escape the clutches of the peloton before that climb, and it took several attempts before the day’s early break took shape, with Dario Acosta (Nippo Fantini), Juan Josè Amador (Manzana Postobon), Sergio Samitier (Euskadi-Murias), Giovanni Visconti, Edoardo Zardini (Neri Sottoli) and Filippo Rocchetti (Team Colpack) eventually forging clear after the intermediate sprint at Reith im Alpbachtal.

The leaders had a buffer of more than 5 minutes by the time Samitier led them over the top of the category 3 Tulfes before they crossed into Italy ahead of the category 1 ascent of the Passo Monte Giovo. Once on the day’s principal difficulty, their group began to fragment, while their lead over a Bahrain-Merida-led peloton also began to drop.

Zardini was climbing strongly and he pressed on alone with 53km to go, only to be joined closer to the top by Samitier, who proceeded to lead over the summit, which came with 44km remaining. By that juncture, the two leaders had 30 seconds in hand on Visconti, while a significantly reduced peloton now trailed them by just 50 seconds.

Much of the way up the climb, it had appeared as though Bahrain were paving the way for an attack from Vincenzo Nibali, but when his brother Antonio swung off 2km from the summit, he opted not to follow through, preferring instead to hold fire for the finale. Froome was still a part of the reduced peloton of fewer than 20 riders on the approach to the summit, but he lost contact amid the low cloud at the top, conceding any lingering hopes of overall victory.

Visibility was severely reduced on the upper reaches of the descent, where Samitier rid himself of Zardini, but the group of favourites was steadily gaining ground, thanks to accelerations from Herman Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Merida), Nikita Stalnov (Astana) and Nibali.

The decisive move eventually took shape with 12km to go, just as Samitier was on the brink of being caught. He was joined in front by Sivakov, Cattaeno, Masnada, Hirt, Stalnov, Pernsteiner and Pawel Poljanski, and they quickly built up a lead of more than half a minute over Nibali, Geoghegan Hart et al.

On the final haul towards Schenna, it was Sivakov who proved the strongest. Born in Italy to Russian parent and raised in France, Sivakov enjoyed a sparkling amateur career, winning the Ronde de l’Isard, Giro della Valle d’Aosta and Girobio in 2017 before joining Sky last year.

Sivakov's debut season was blighted by injury, but he has enjoyed a smoother run in his sophomore year and the 22-year-old is in line to ride the Giro next month, where another rider born in 1997, Egan Bernal, will lead the team.

"We have a really good young group we work together really well," Sivakov. "Today, the big favourites looked at Tao and I had an opportunity to go in the break, so I have to say a big thanks to him."

Full Results